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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Spring is when Life's alive in everything", February 26, 2005
The naturalist Edwin Way Teale wrote four books about his and his wife's 100,000-mile journey that crisscrossed America and its seasons: "North With the Spring" (1951); "Autumn Across America" (1956); "Journey into Summer" (1960); and "Wandering Through Winter" (1965). In nearly 1400 pages this quartet of books takes the reader off the beaten paths and onto a grand tour of the natural history of this country. The only other books I know of that are remotely similar to these are John McPhee's geological grand tour of the 40th Parallel, "Annals of the Former World" (formerly published as a four-volume set).
If Annie Dillard had abandoned Tinker's Creek and taken a pilgrimage across America, she might have written books comparable to Teale's opus magnus.
The author and his wife, Nellie are the grandparents everyone should have, pottering about the country, writing reams of lucid prose about their adventures. Teale's warmth and breadth of interests sustain our attention through the beginning of their journey in south Florida, then northward from the Everglades where the orange and tangerine harvests were nearing their end. The Teales found themselves following the strawberry harvest and great migrations of birds north all the way to New England. The pace might seem a bit stately to some readers, but Nature is stately. This is a trait that ought to belong to naturalists. It is the antithesis of the TV generation's notoriously short attention span.
Nellie and Edwin linger not only in Trillium-covered glens, seashell islands, and flatlands where "pitcher plants by the thousands, sundews in vast numbers, butterworts and their blue spring flowers" bloom. They also spend part of their journey in the Poisoned Hills of Tennessee, in the Ducktown Desert of the Copper Basin. "All the hills were pleasant here less than a hundred years ago. What had happened? What had left these slopes around us sterile and lifeless?"
Until about 1840, Cherokee Indians had occupied the forested hills. Then the Indians were herded west by General Winfield Scott and white settlers moved in. They discovered copper, cut down the forests to roast the ore, and sent clouds of sulphur-dioxide spreading over the hills. Year by year the acidity of the soil increased until nothing would grow. "Left behind like a red flayed carcass, were the raw hills of sterile undersoil."
In spite of the beauties in this book--the miles of migrating warblers, the flight-songs of the yellow-throat, trips on mud-boats through Louisiana swamps, and patches of brilliant hawkweed and robin's plantain--this book does not ignore the damage that we have inflicted on our land. These are the hardest chapters to read, but they must be read.
Teale's black-and-white photographs form a meticulous record of their journey through an American spring, including violets, baby cottontail rabbits. and the author amidst a flock of ring-billed gulls at the beginning of his journey. It is easy to fall in love with these books, and the couple who lived each chapter. I read them over and over again.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some day I would like to retrace Teale's journey, March 2, 2007
The naturalist Edwin Way Teale wrote four books about his and his wife's 100,000-mile journey that crisscrossed America and its seasons: "North With the Spring" (1951); "Autumn Across America" (1956); "Journey into Summer" (1960); and "Wandering Through Winter" (1965). In nearly 1400 pages this quartet of books takes the reader off the beaten paths and onto a grand tour of the natural history of this country. The only other books I know of that are remotely similar to these are John McPhee's geological grand tour of the 40th Parallel, "Annals of the Former World" (formerly published as a four-volume set).
If Annie Dillard had abandoned Tinker's Creek and taken a pilgrimage across America, she might have written books comparable to Teale's opus magnus.
The author and his wife, Nellie are the grandparents everyone should have, pottering about the country, writing reams of lucid prose about their adventures. Teale's warmth and breadth of interests sustain our attention through the beginning of their journey in south Florida, then northward from the Everglades where the orange and tangerine harvests were nearing their end. The Teales found themselves following the strawberry harvest and great migrations of birds north all the way to New England. The pace might seem a bit stately to some readers, but Nature is stately. This is a trait that ought to belong to naturalists. It is the antithesis of the blogosphere's inhabitants' notoriously short attention span and concentration on the unreal.
Nellie and Edwin linger not only in Trillium-covered glens, seashell islands, and flatlands where "pitcher plants by the thousands, sundews in vast numbers, butterworts and their blue spring flowers" bloom. They also spend part of their journey in the Poisoned Hills of Tennessee, in the Ducktown Desert of the Copper Basin. "All the hills were pleasant here less than a hundred years ago. What had happened? What had left these slopes around us sterile and lifeless?"
Until about 1840, Cherokee Indians had occupied the forested hills. Then the Indians were herded west by General Winfield Scott and white settlers moved in. They discovered copper, cut down the forests to roast the oar, and sent clouds of sulphur-dioxide spreading over the hills. Year by year the acidity of the soil increased until nothing would grow. "Left behind like a red flayed carcass, were the raw hills of sterile undersoil."
In spite of the beauties in this book--the miles of migrating warblers, the flight-songs of the yellow-throat, trips on mud-boats through Louisiana swamps, and patches of brilliant hawkweed and robin's plantain--this book does not ignore the damage that we have inflicted on our land. These are the hardest chapters to read, but they must be read.
Teale's black-and-white photographs form a meticulous record of their journey through an American spring, including violets, baby cottontail rabbits. and the author amidst a flock of ring-billed gulls at the beginning of his journey. It is easy to fall in love with these books, and the couple who lived each chapter. I read them over and over again, and some day I would like to retrace this great naturalist's journey through our country.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
America through the eyes of a naturalist, November 9, 2006
The naturalist Edwin Way Teale wrote four books about his and his wife's 100,000-mile journey that crisscrossed America and its seasons: "North With the Spring" (1951); "Autumn Across America" (1956); "Journey into Summer" (1960); and "Wandering Through Winter" (1965). In nearly 1400 pages this quartet of books takes the reader off the beaten paths and onto a grand tour of the natural history of this country. The only other books I know of that are remotely similar to these are John McPhee's geological grand tour of the 40th Parallel, "Annals of the Former World" (formerly published as a four-volume set).
If Annie Dillard had abandoned Tinker's Creek and taken a pilgrimage across America, she might have written books comparable to Teale's opus magnus.
The author and his wife, Nellie are the grandparents everyone should have, pottering about the country, writing reams of lucid prose about their adventures. Teale's warmth and breadth of interests sustain our attention through the beginning of their journey in south Florida, then northward from the Everglades where the orange and tangerine harvests were nearing their end. The Teales found themselves following the strawberry harvest and great migrations of birds north all the way to New England. The pace might seem a bit stately to some readers, but Nature is stately. This is a trait that ought to belong to naturalists. It is the antithesis of the TV generation's notoriously short attention span.
Nellie and Edwin linger not only in Trillium-covered glens, seashell islands, and flatlands where "pitcher plants by the thousands, sundews in vast numbers, butterworts and their blue spring flowers" bloom. They also spend part of their journey in the Poisoned Hills of Tennessee, in the Ducktown Desert of the Copper Basin. "All the hills were pleasant here less than a hundred years ago. What had happened? What had left these slopes around us sterile and lifeless?"
Until about 1840, Cherokee Indians had occupied the forested hills. Then the Indians were herded west by General Winfield Scott and white settlers moved in. They discovered copper, cut down the forests to roast the ore, and sent clouds of sulphur-dioxide spreading over the hills. Year by year the acidity of the soil increased until nothing would grow. "Left behind like a red flayed carcass, were the raw hills of sterile undersoil."
In spite of the beauties in this book--the miles of migrating warblers, the flight-songs of the yellow-throat, trips on mud-boats through Louisiana swamps, and patches of brilliant hawkweed and robin's plantain--this book does not ignore the damage that we have inflicted on our land. These are the hardest chapters to read, but they must be read.
Teale's black-and-white photographs form a meticulous record of their journey through an American spring, including violets, baby cottontail rabbits. and the author amidst a flock of ring-billed gulls at the beginning of his journey. It is easy to fall in love with these books, and the couple who lived each chapter. I read them over and over again.
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by Edwin Way Teale
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